Posts published in Day: June 17, 2019

In the Latvian Saeima, this week, a draft Law on Unmarried couples would be proposed by the party alliance Attīstībai/Par!. Daniels Pavļuts, the leader of the liberal party alliance Attīstībai/Par!, commented on Monday, June 17, that the law would be meant for everyone in Latvia and «will not replace or endanger the concept of marriage in any way». «We provide an additional instrument bring security to two private individuals living…

On June 16 NATO and partner countries’ forces training at multinational maritime-focussed Exercise BALTOPS conducted a demonstration amphibious landing operation on the coast in Nemirseta. The operation was conducted by the UK Royal Marines, as well as the marines of the United States, Portugal and Romania, also, amphibious warfare ships of Poland and the U.S. ORP Gniezno and USS Fort McHenry, AV-8B attack aircraft of Spain, Merlin, Sea King and…

As the numbers of air passengers are growing in Lithuania, a new airport could be built between the country’s largest cities of Vilnius and Kaunas by 2035, the country’s Transport Minister Rokas Masiulis says, adding that the final decision is expected in 2022. “If that large growth in passenger flows continues, we will have no choice as we will need a new airport, and there are plans to build an…

France, Germany and Spain agreed Monday to develop a European fighter jet and air combat system, as they bolster efforts to reduce their dependency on the United States. Defense ministers from the three countries signed an agreement at the Paris Air Show that lays out how the countries will cooperate on the project, which would include a new-generation combat aircraft. French President Emmanuel Macron presided over the signing. The project…

EU foreign and defence ministers today discussed the EU Global Strategy. Following the discussion, the Council adopted conclusions on security and defence in the context of the EU Global Strategy. Noting that since the launch of the EU Global Strategy in June 2016, the EU has taken ground-breaking steps forward in the area of security and defence, the Council welcomes the substantive progress made to enhance the security of the Union and…

In recent years US diplomatic missions around the world would hoist a rainbow flag alongside the US flag as a gesture of solidarity during the annual “LGBT Pride Month”. This year, however, such campaigns had to be coordinated with the Trump administration’s stance. As a result, US embassies in several countries, Latvia among them, took the decision themselves, reported LSM’s Russian service on June 16. In the past, flying the rainbow flag was…

Following an operation that lasted almost 24 hours, the end of the undersea pipeline of the Estonia-Finland gas interconnection Balticconnector reached land at Pakrineeme on Pakri peninsula in northwestern Estonia on Monday morning. The work to pull the end of the underwater portion of the pipeline from the sea was finished at 9 a.m. on Monday and the last weld on the underwater pipe will be completed next week, Estonian…

Lithuania needs more air defense capabilities, Lithuania’s President-elect Gitanas Nauseda told NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Friday. The future president and the NATO secretary general had a phone conversation, Aistis Zabarauskas, spokesman for Nauseda, told BNS Lithuania on Friday. “We said air defense is important and we want more of it,” Zabarauskas said. Air defense is the Baltic states’ weakest point in military terms. The Baltic states do not have…

On 14-16 June two largest NATO ship formation groups – Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG1) and Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMGMG1) participated in one of the largest annual naval exercise BALTOPS 2019 in the Lithuanian territorial waters of the Baltic Sea. On Sunday, the Allied troops coastal landing operation took place, observed by Lithuanian Minister of National Defense Raimundas Karoblis, Vice Admiral Andrew L. Lewis, the current…

The global nuclear arsenal has slightly decreased in the past twelve months, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), but the risk of nuclear conflict has risen. “There is a new type of arms race, not about the quantity of warheads but about technologies,” Hans M. Kristensen, an associate senior fellow with the SIPRI Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-proliferation programme, told Euronews. The global security thinktank estimates in…